School Board member Betty Burney will host a community conversation about bullying and violence in Duval County schools. The first "Enough" session will be held Thursday at 6 p.m. at St. Paul AME Church, 6910 New Kings Road.

Schools are required to investigate any reports of bullying, including cyberbullying or incidents to and from school, and notify parents. Forms to report bullying, by name or anonymously, are available at www.duvalschools.org.

Starting next year, that tracking will include incidents when someone hasn't been disciplined.

Vianett Brooks, 11, moved to Jacksonville with her family in January and enrolled at J.E.B. Stuart Middle School as a sixth-grader. By her account and her family's, she has been the victim of bullying by a group of girls at her school and despite efforts by her family to put a stop to it, the school has not addressed the problem and the bullying has continued.

Vianett Brooks says she was taunted and bullied by classmates who quickly decided they didn't like the new girl.

The 11-year-old moved from Colorado to J.E.B. Stuart Middle School in Jacksonville in the middle of this school year. She says she got into a fight with one girl, and afterward many of the girl's friends began harassing her, too.

She says she had her hair pulled, was punched, even bitten. She started skipping meals in the cafeteria to avoid being a target.

For now, she's staying home - her mother is convinced nobody at the school can protect her.

"I want to go to a different school and just move on," Vianett said.

Despite claiming all the hallmarks of bullying - repeated verbal taunts, threats and physical violence - Vianett isn't tallied anywhere as a victim. School administrators say they investigated but couldn't find enough proof that Vianett's story was true.

The allegations made by Vianett and her mother aren't counted either.

Duval County Public Schools officials say they currently have no way to track how many children report being bullied when the school hasn't disciplined someone as a result.

The 122,000-student district punished 35 students for bullying in 2007-08 and 41 this year, according to numbers provided last week to the Times-Union.

But experts say the number of bullying incidents reported by schools around the country is only a fraction of what actually occurs. Victims often refuse to come forward, fearing retribution, and school administrators are sometimes unclear on what constitutes a bullying charge.

Starting next year, the Duval district plans to start tracking bullying complaints that don't result in discipline. That'll help officials decide where to focus future training efforts, said Kathy Bowles, supervisor of the district's Safe and Healthy Schools program.

"Maybe we'll see we need more professional development or promote more reporting," Bowles said. "Or maybe the reports that are there are what's really happening, and maybe it isn't as big an issue as people think."

Administrators asked her daughter to sit in the cafeteria near a camera, so they could capture proof she was being bullied. Brooks refused, saying she wouldn't make her daughter a sitting duck for more violence.

"I don't know what else to do," she said.

The school's principal, Gregory D. Bostic, said most bullying reports are one child's word against the other, and the school investigated but couldn't be sure if Vianett was part of the problem. He said teachers and administrators have kept a closer eye on her.

"We've had kids that stretch the truth," Bostic said. "Parents will take their child's side. ... If a parent has a one-track mind about their child being bullied, they don't want to hear what we're putting in place."

Serious consequences needed

The issue of bullying has taken the national stage in recent months, sparked by tragedies across the country.

In January, 15-year-old Phoebe Prince, a new Irish immigrant to Massachusetts, committed suicide after she was relentlessly picked on by girls at school. This month, a 15-year-old Alabama girl jumped from the interstate in part because of bullying.

The stories all sound painfully familiar to Debbie Johnston of Cape Coral. Her son, Jeffrey Johnston, took his own life in 2004 after being bullied.

Some things don't change, she said. Children can still be cruel. She still tears up, remembering the time that she and her family bumped into Jeff's unrepentant tormenters at the movies, and they acted like they had nooses around their necks and laughed.

The main difference between her son's death and now, Johnston said, is that people are talking about it.

"Everybody is recognizing that bullying isn't a rite of passage, it's not a part of childhood, and it doesn't build character," Johnston said.

The numbers provided by Duval County seemed extremely low to Johnston, who said that most teachers - herself included - underestimate the problem in their classes.

Bullying is a major offense that requires in-school suspension at a minimum, and Johnston suspects some people may hesitate to check that box without being sure they know the truth of what's going on. The best way to deter bullies is for children to know there will be serious consequences, she said.

"If you kick a child out of cheerleading for bullying, every other cheerleader is going to quit bullying," Johnston said.

'Such extreme disparity'

At first, Jakari Stamper didn't tell anyone at school he was being bullied.

The Boy Scout bumped into a classmate from Paxon School for Advanced Studies during a tour of juvenile detention. The classmate was jailed there.

From that day, Jakari was picked on.

After the teen's first fistfight with bullies led to his suspension, Bruce Stamper told his son, a black belt in karate, not to fight back.

The next time, he was waiting after school for a ride when he was approached by two boys. Despite his attempt to escape and run away, the 16-year-old was struck in the neck and suffered a stroke.

Now Jakari sees speech therapists several times a week. His doctors wouldn't let him go back to school, fearing the combination of his blood thinners and another fight could be deadly. Through nearly three months of recovery, he's been doing his best to complete his schoolwork online.

The boy who caused the serious injury was expelled and arrested, Stamper said. But he claims the school failed to take Jakari's first fight seriously. That boy had a history of fighting, Stamper said, and he had to push for him to even be suspended, along with Jakari.

Paxon Principal Royce Turner said he feels for Jakari's family but stressed that the school offers a safe room, supervised by an adult, that Jakari could've used if he was fearful.

"He didn't take advantage on the day of that incident, but we do have that," Turner said.

School Board member Betty Burney became concerned about bullying after reading a survey of Duval County students. When asked to anonymously report, about 16 percent of high school students said they'd been bullied. About 14 percent of high schoolers admitted they'd thought about or attempted suicide.

She's also concerned that 42 of the 49 children punished for bullying last school year were African-American. None of the children punished were white females.

The code of conduct should be clear, Burney said, that all children who are reported should be punished equally. The district's policy calls for monitoring up to suspension for a report of bullying.

Burney plans to seek a more thorough explanation of how the reporting works from Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals.

"There's such an extreme disparity," she said. "Are adults hearing it one way and reporting it another? What I think is that there's discretion involved, and the district needs to make sure every way we can that discretion is taken out."

She's starting a series of community meetings about bullying and violence in schools, and she hopes to see more students willing to tell an adult what they're going through before it's too late.

"Some kids are afraid they'll get hurt worse if they report," Burney said. "We need to let them know they have a safe place and it'll be OK."

They've waged a PR campaign this year to prove our schools are safer than ever...that was done by telling principals to lower the number of referrals and suspension. But as everyone has seen and heard, nothing has changed and in fact, by not having consequences kids know they can get away with more and are doing so.

Many teachers write up kids and never see the referral copy back in their box...some how it's ''lost'' or never even processed. I have kids who are supposed to be suspended or in ISSP sitting in my class but I didn't even know they were supposed to be out because I've not gotten the referral back...and they weren't listed as being out in the "On Course'' attendance which is supposed to be handled by the house administrators.

And yes newer teachers are scared to write referrals because it looks bad on their evaluations. Also you write too many then it is suggested that you have an issue with ''classroom management'' and you either need training or again you will get a bad evaluation.

District policies are getting more and more lenient. A few years ago, one of my students was caught smoking weed in the restroom, and he was back at school the next day due to the new policy of ''if your parent agrees to send you to a special rehab type class you won't be referred to alternative school'' . That was a tough one to explain to his classmates...and even his mom was perplexed when later on he received three days home for talking on his cell phone in class. (it was his third offense on that charge)....

There are a lot of screwed up policies with DCPS. But the only people who can change that are the regular folks, not teachers. Because NO ONE listens to us. If we complain, we are being negative and trying to make our school look bad....and that is seriously frowned upon these days.

The School Board, Superintendent, Administration (in particular principals) are the problem, not the solution. As has already been noted, the administration does not want to track or keep up with these types of problems. Teachers are discouraged from writing up situations and are all scared for their jobs, especially those with three years or less. Schools are not safe for students or teachers. Many schools do not have in-school suspension. The only ones safe in education are the School Board, Superintendent, Administration and principals. They are not in the classrooms. They are not listening. Their evaluations are based on artificially lowering those statistics. Meanwhile teachers and students are stuck with this perversely irrational situation. School Board and principals are afraid of the bullying parents calling them and don't want to deal with the situation. A vicious circle. I do pray sometime of substance will happen to start on the road to resolving these conflicts and not just more task forces and talk.

Our Superintendent makes $274,974.00 a year. And has much smaller organization. He's got Director's reporting to Senior Directors etc. He is the one that is accountable for our schools.
While the mayor's position (yes I know he's already wealthy)is paid $173,940.96 a year. He has no power over our schools but must try to bring businesses in with a school district that is horrible!